


About Today

by Verbyna



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Blood Magic, Codependency, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-21
Updated: 2013-11-21
Packaged: 2018-01-02 05:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1052986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verbyna/pseuds/Verbyna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Tony hates him now, but he comes to Loki’s house at night. They sit across from each other at the table and listen to the wailing, and Loki doesn’t say a single thing, because it might come true.</i>
</p><p>(a Welcome to Night Vale AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	About Today

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FelicityGS](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FelicityGS/gifts).



> I got the idea for this while I was running a fever of 104 earlier. Fel said WRITE IT, so I did. Chaperoned said POST IT, so I did. Thanks, guys!
> 
> (Title from the song by The National.)

The sky turned to fire when they were eleven. It only lasted three days, though it felt like minutes or months, depending on what part of town one happened to be in when it started.

It wasn’t so bad, compared to the rains that followed. Talking trees sprung from the sandy earth like scared children, always asking why why _why_ in a way no child of Night Vale would. In a way Loki never has, even when he was so small he couldn’t hold his weapon steady unless Tony was there to see it.

The rains and trees miseried the town until the grownups gathered on the patch of scrubland that would become a dog park and offered themselves in sacrifice. That’s how Tony’s parents vanished: under a hood, nothing left underneath but darkness that creepy-crawled down the spine like ice water - like the feeling of being watched.

That's when Loki swore to himself, with a child’s belief and a blood oath, that he would always be Tony’s friend.

*

The last thing Loki remembers before he was claimed as the voice is Tony returning the promise and sealing it with a kiss; the taste of iron and the smell of ozone, their greedy gods watching from the rafters. The first taste of happiness before the perfect peace of the claiming became the new normal, and Tony became the thorn in Loki’s side.

They were bound together. They still are. It may not be important if they think of the vastness of an uncaring universe and the insignificance of human life compared to the unfathomable depths of space, but in the microcosm of Night Vale, it is the line that the Voice, for all his responsibilities and unwavering sense of duty, is unwilling and unable to cross.

Loki has been in love for a very long time.

 

*

 

“Here is a list of things:

“Cats. The color red. Red neon OPEN signs, blinking off. Novelty wrapping paper. A child’s birthday party. Rain. The faceless woman who knows and hates you. A child’s simple fears. Your simple fears. Atavistic fear. The cat you can’t remember getting. Memories you only know by the shape of their loss. Quiet whimpers coming from your closet at night. A door creaking open. A door slamming shut. White knuckles. The weather.”

He puts the weather on and rests his head on his folded arms, careful of the headphones. From here, he can see the places on the floor where interns scrubbed blood off over the years. Some of it was his own, from his ears and mouth; there is a price to what he does, even if he tries not to think about it much.

It's his home. He is home anywhere in Night Vale, it’s an extension of himself or he's an extension of it, but here in the studio, there is no room for doubt.

Here is something he doesn’t say, here in his home: sometimes things become true because he puts words to them. He heard Station Management making inquiring noises about Tony, and that night he said that he hates Tony, and it was true while he said it. He repeats it as often as he has to.

If he hates Tony, he can’t possibly love him. Even Station Management believes the Voice. And if Loki hates Tony, then Tony is safe from curiosity, and maybe one of these days he’ll forget he made a promise and leave Loki alone.

Maybe then Loki will finally sleep through the night. It’s exhausting to be Tony’s friend when Tony doesn’t have the sense to stay away from Loki and the danger that trails him like a vicious pet, a horror show, the smell of home, the blood in a bruise.

Tony hates him now, but he comes to Loki’s house at night. They sit across from each other at the table and listen to the wailing, and Loki doesn’t say a single thing, because it might come true.

 

*

 

Tony is running drills at Night Vale Elementary and none of the interns are currently both conscious and corporeal, so Loki puts on his favorite bulletproof vest and goes to report on it himself. It’s a beautiful day with enough give in gravity to put a spring in his step, the Glow Cloud a soothing terror above. Even the clever graffiti seems more clever than ever.

The children are shooting with their usual impeccable aim, tiny bloodthirsty shouts piercing the air here and there. Tony has them running around the perimeter counterclockwise and firing whenever he uses a color in his running commentary. The clouds are grey and purple: boom. Miriam’s blue shoes are pretty: boom. The grass is black on Wednesdays and holidays: boom.

On and on, hails of gunfire and Tony’s monologue fill the whole yard. Loki sits on a plastic chair and unwraps his sandwich, settling in for lunch. He tries not to look at Tony directly, because that way madness lies, and instead watches the children, trying to pick out the ones most likely to survive Cleaning and the library and, by extension, eventually become his interns.

Tony survived everything and applied when he turned eighteen. He didn’t hate Loki then, didn’t believe him when he said he was scared of himself. He hadn’t kissed Loki in three years when Loki told him there was no room for him, but a month later he was on Loki’s front step, running his hands down Loki’s arms where the monsters had clung.

Loki wipes his palms of crumbs on his trouser legs and rolls up his sleeves. His tattoos-that-aren’t-tattoos gleam like scales in the midday light. Tony calls them purple, calls them green, calls them out like orders in the battlefield. Everything smells like gun oil, mint and bananas, and Loki stands and walks away before his smile breaks through.

It warms him up from the inside, seeing Tony so purposeful. For a while, he’d wondered, but Tony is made of stronger stuff. He still lets his mother hug him. He never screams. Loki doesn’t talk to him anymore, because he’s right to fear himself, but if he did, he’d tell Tony that he’s proud.

 

*

 

Loki has died seven times since he became the Voice. On three occasions, it was the whole town that temporarily stopped living, but the other four are his own.

He never talks about them. On the list of things he doesn’t talk about, they’re not very important, but he’s learned to guard things that belong to him alone. Like the blood oath to protect Tony, Loki’s breaks from life are personal.

Each time, he woke up on the ground outside the station, then went inside to do the show.

Each time, Tony was waiting for him when he finished. He didn’t ask what happened, because Loki wouldn’t have answered, but he held Loki’s hand all the way home, just like Loki knew he would.

On the doorstep, “I made you a promise, but can’t you look after yourself a little better? Make it easier for me to ignore you?”

Loki can only shrug helplessly when he’s resurrected. What is there to say? There’s nothing on the other side for him, because Tony is right here, living and breathing and running to his side when he needs it.

It’s personal, this hollowed afterlife. Loki may be the Voice, but Tony is his armor, the only secret he can afford to keep. Someday they’ll both disappear without a trace, and Loki will go quietly, safe in the knowledge that Tony will fight for the both of them. He’ll lose, but he’ll try, and that’s why Loki isn’t bitter.

If Tony still has fight in him when his parents are hooded figures and Loki is possessed every day, then the world is not a terrible place. He says as much on the air. He always means it.


End file.
